


I Hope You Dance

by hufflepirate



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Ballroom Dancing, Childhood Memories, Dancing, Dancing Lessons, Fluff, Gen, Memories, Nostalgia, Playing Pretend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 13:00:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13388334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hufflepirate/pseuds/hufflepirate
Summary: Inspired by ggracee's art on tumblr (link inside)When the paladins start learning to dance, Allura remembers Coran teaching her - and they both remember that it's supposed to be fun.





	I Hope You Dance

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this post: https://ggracee.tumblr.com/post/168738803118/i-like-to-imagine-that-coran-taught-baby-allura
> 
> I saw it and couldn't get it out of my head. Also, I too like to imagine that Coran taught baby Allura to dance.

Allura leaned into Coran's shoulder so she could crane her neck farther to watch the others. He was as solid as ever, his hand on her upper back keeping her rock steady even as she leaned out. "They're not doing very well, are they?" she asked.

Just as she finished asking the question, Lance squawked loudly, catching his balance after almost falling over. "Pidge is too short!" he complained.

"I'm tall enough to-" Pidge started, before Coran let go of Allura and interrupted.

"It's alright, Lance. It's always difficult when you're first starting out. Go slower, and take shorter steps. Pidge isn't the only one who won't be able to keep up with those big strides!"

Lance's face slid into a pout, and the others turned just in time for Keith to get a glimpse of it. "Hey, you _could_ have been dancing with Hunk," he commented.

"What's wrong with dancing with me?" Hunk asked.

Keith patted his shoulder awkwardly. "Nothing. I was just saying he has _options_. I mean what ever happened to 'I can't learn the girl part - all the girls are gonna want to dance with me.' Hunk and I haven't stepped on each other once! I think we're getting pretty good!"

Hunk spun Keith out into a spin, just to show off. It was awkward and out of time, but they did indeed manage not to step on each other. Allura stifled a giggle.

Lance blushed. "I meant, you know, _tall_ girls." At the last minute, he realized who he was still holding hands with and added, "No offense, Pidge."

She plastered on a fake smile and immediately stepped on his foot, even though they'd stopped moving. "None taken."

Coran sighed, clapping his hands for their attention. Hunk and Keith stopped doing their basic steps and all four paladins looked over at Coran.

"Alright," he said, "Just take a minute to watch me and Allura. If you're leading, it's your job to make sure your partner is comfortable. It's not just about doing what _you_ want. It's about communicating."

Allura took her place, hand on his shoulder and chin up, but then he let go of her, pulling his arms back out of her grip. "Actually, you know what, Allura, why don't you lead?"

"Of course!" she answered, trying not to show her apprehension in front of the other paladins. She'd done this before, of course. But it had been a long time, and it had always been a bit awkward.

She took a deep breath and forced her shoulders down and out, trying to be as solid as Coran always was, and then led him into the first step, keeping her eyes carefully up.

She'd started learning to lead when she was not quite up to Coran's shoulder. She'd been just coming down with something, but there had been a ball coming up, and her mother had _insisted_ that she practice, and when Coran had spun her one too many times, instead of squealing with glee, like she usually did, she'd gotten dizzy and then nauseous and then angry. She'd stopped right there in the middle of the floor and stomped her foot and told him off for being too silly when she didn't want to do this anyway.

To his eternal credit, Coran had only let it hurt his feelings for a moment before he was working through the problem, trying to figure out what was bothering her. Then he'd told her it was her turn to lead, because then _she_ could decide on the number of spins. She hadn't been convinced, but when he told her she'd understand the dance better if she knew both parts anyway, she gave in. It had turned out to be just what the doctor ordered, and she'd gotten lost in the new challenge.

"Should we switch, too?" Hunk whispered, just audible across the room.

"No," Keith answered, "I think we're just watching."

No pressure. Allura spun Coran, and he added an extra flourish, reaching his free hand down to flap the tail of his coat out toward the paladins. This time, she couldn't stifle the giggle at all.

That first time, she'd still been so short that he had to duck his head down to go under her arm, and when she'd gotten good enough at leading to spin him multiple times in a row, he'd lost his balance much faster than she did, with the extra ducking. She'd clocked him in the head with her elbow and knocked him all the way down.

She'd laughed then, too, after a moment of shock. He'd made a joke, one she couldn't even remember now, and it was like nothing had ever been wrong, like all the things that had been bothering her to begin with were just _gone_.

"You know," she said, "The spins aren't nearly as dramatic now that your hair is short."

Coran laughed, "And without the bangs flying around in my face. We _were_ a pair, when you were learning."

She giggled, again. "I always thought I was going to end up with a mouthful of hair until that day we practiced the spinning on its own."

Coran let her lead him into a move where they both spun, now that she'd recalled how to do it. "You always did like spinning," he said, as soon as he'd come back to her, "I'd kept that spinning practice in my back pocket for a couple of pheebs, waiting for you to have a bad day and need cheering up."

"Did you really?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, "You didn't need cheering up that often, when you were that little, so I'd come up with a really good plan and then just hold onto it until I needed it."

"Aww, that's so sweet!" Pidge commented, breaking both Alteans out of their remembering.

Coran cleared his throat, and Allura took the cue, leading them both to a stop.

"Ah, right," Coran said, "That's the dance again, but Allura's more deliberate with the lead, because she hasn't done it as much. Now you try again."

As soon as she and Coran were circulating to help the others, she wished they could have another dance, with him in the lead like she was used to, but that would be silly. She wasn't a little girl anymore. He didn't need to spin her around to cheer her up.

She couldn't help but feel a little sad, as she swapped in to dance with Lance and they all shuffled partners, that the paladins weren't having as much fun with their first dance lesson as she'd had with hers. It had been a grand adventure, Coran bowing to her in the big empty ballroom and pretending there were courtiers all around. This was just another thing to learn and practice and cram into the time they didn't have between all their other obligations.

"Shorter steps, Lance," she said, "This isn't a three-legged race. We don't have to get around the room the fastest."

"Alteans have three-legged races?" he asked, almost stepping on her dress again in his moment of distraction.

"They're not a difficult concept," she said, getting back to business, "And smaller steps will also make it easier to keep an eye on where we're going and steer."

"I have to _steer_?" he said.

"Keith is already steering. I'm sure you can do it too."

Lance made a soft, impatient noise. Actually, Keith and Pidge looked painfully awkward. She looked slightly more comfortable in his arms than she had stretching to reach Lance's shoulders, but both of them kept trying to look at their feet and blushing when the other one caught them at it.

Hunk was the one doing the best, leading Coran well enough that 'smaller steps' and 'no, it's your other foot' and 'you have to start it on the beat' had made way for smaller critiques. He was almost starting to have some style, when he didn't get completely off the music because he was so wrapped up in his own head.

Allura had always had a good sense of rhythm, and she'd been watching the dancing for ages before she was allowed to try it, sneaking up from her room to peer into the ballroom from the corridor outside. She'd always been terrified that she was going to get caught, but when she finally had, Coran had just winked at her, with a finger to his lips, and gestured back toward the other end of the hall, sending her off to bed.

He hadn't _had_ to ask her father to let her learn. He hadn't had to volunteer to teach her, in his spare time. He hadn't had to pretend it was all formal and dramatic and her everyday play dress was a ball gown and the tinny old recording of songs slowed down for practice was a real orchestra that 'sounded magnificent' that night. He'd done it anyway, and she'd felt like everything was big and grand and special, and this just wasn't -

Coran caught her eye for a moment, around Hunk's shoulder, and he seemed to read at least some of what she was feeling in her face.

She hoped she hadn't given Lance the wrong impression. He wasn't doing _so_ badly, for a beginner, she supposed. Not badly enough to make her feel morose. "Yes, that's better," she commented absently, not quite sure which part of his dancing she meant.

He smiled anyway. "Thanks! I'm getting the hang of it."

It was a relief to stop when Coran clapped for their attention, again.

"I think you're ready," he said, "We ought to practice this at least once for real." He studied them all for a moment, then grinned. "Wait right here."

Allura raised an eyebrow, but when he came back with an armful of blankets and a mouthful of safety pins, she started to put it together. "At a really formal event," he said, through his mouthful of pins, "You gentlemen would all be wearing capes."

"Oh no," Keith said.

"Oh yes," Coran said, wiggling his eyebrows, "And a skirt, for Pidge. We'll tie it on the side and then pin it."

The paladins groaned, but once they were made up in their fake finery, they couldn't quite hide their half-smiles. This was more like it. 

Coran stepped up to her, holding something behind his back. He bowed formally. "Princess?"

"Yes, Coran?" she asked.

"Would you allow me the honor?" he asked, holding out a circlet of flowers she'd woven together several planets ago, in a moment of peace. She hadn't realized he'd preserved it, much less kept it hidden away somewhere he could find it again. She nodded seriously, stepping into the game just the way she always had.

This wasn't her coronation. She wouldn't get a coronation. There was nothing left to be crowned the queen of. She knelt down, letting him place the crown gently on her head. He offered her his hand and she took it, rising smoothly to her feet with his help. The other paladins were quiet, for the first time since they'd started their dancing lessons.

Coran smiled, raising their joined hands and turning both of them toward the paladins, and she felt herself smiling, too. "May I present Princess Allura of Altea," he said, just as he'd said it a thousand times before, without the crown. She was glad he hadn't said "queen." It would have been too much, and they both knew it.

Hunk and Lance bowed, the latter more dramatically, and Keith and Pidge joined them with a more hurried bow and curtsy when Lance waved frantically backward at them, and Allura had to stifle a giggle again, for a completely different reason this time.

Coran stepped sideways, holding his hand up beside his mouth as he said, in a stage whisper, "Royalty gets the first dance, but you lot can join us on the second." Then he stepped back into his place, shoulders straight, head up, like he'd never broken the pretending at all, and asked, "May I have this dance, Your Highness?"

She smiled. "Of course, Sir Coran."

"Is he a 'Sir'?" Lance whispered behind them, "I didn't know that."

"I don't think so," Pidge hissed back.

Coran winked at Allura, then held his finger up beside his nose and dashed off to start the music, hurrying back to her just like he had when she was small and sweeping her into the first steps of their traditional first dance. For a moment, she was tempted to step onto his feet and let him carry her, like he had when she was very small, but that was silly, and she could do this now, and do it well. She swept into the dance, trying to imagine herself into a sparkly dress under a gleaming spotlight.

The few extra spins Coran pulled her into as soon as the paladins had joined them on the floor made her feel better, adult or not. This wasn't a day for sadness. It was a day to dance. After he let her get her balance again, Coran whirled her into a second set of extra spins, until she thought her crown might whirl all the way off her head and she was laughing in spite of herself, just like she had all those years ago.

When she came back in from the spins, she leaned a little more heavily into him than she needed to and whispered, "And how long has _this_ been in your back pocket, Sir Coran?"

He chuckled, "Long enough."

She caught a glimpse of Lance flipping his cape around with him as he danced and Hunk trying hopelessly to catch Pidge up and avoid stepping on her skirt at the same time, and when Coran added, "And it _is_ such a lovely night for a ball," she couldn't help but agree.


End file.
